The Cultural Proficiency Team intends to make a new video to promote themes of tolerance and create a sense of community at the school. The video will be an update of last year’s “Power of Words,” featuring new students and new but similar themes.
“[The new video] will focus on life outside the classroom,” Cultural Proficiency Team member and English teacher Susana Herrera said.
Herrera said that the new video will most likely focus on the issue of listening, particularly whether students feel that their opinions or beliefs are validated by their peers and by the school. However, since the video was approved to be made only recently and specific students haven’t been selected for interviews yet, the details of the video are still very much up in the air. The team hopes the video will be finished by the end of March and presented to the school on Friday, May 1 during an extended third period.
“[The themes] will depend on our sources,” Herrera said. “We need some more meetings to talk about what we want to do.”
Herrera also mentioned that a goal of the new video is to be more modern and to have a format that is more appealing to its student audience. She said it will have a “real fresh, MTV-like feel to it.”
Older versions of the video have been documentaries of student life, featuring interviews with multiple students from the school mixed with shots of student life. The new video will probably follow a similar format but will also mix things up. Herrera mentioned that the new video will try to incorporate humor while still touching on important themes.
Herrera said that the “Power of Words” was not received well last year primarily because the team had little manpower and time to devote to making it, whereas the film made 2 years ago was worked on for over 200 hours.
“[Last year, English teacher Galen] Rosenberg didn’t have much time to do it,” Herrera said. “In order for a good film to happen, you need the time.”
The team looks to devote much more time and effort into making the upcoming film one of quality.
“This is the first year we’re having more than one or two people tackle the film,” Herrera said.
Herrera also mentioned that the team is trying to make commercials for the video to be shown on the daily announcements. She believes that such commercials, if humorous, will help grab students’ attention and contribute to the video’s intended funny feel.
“Hopefully [the video] will be more fun and engaging than any of the ones we’ve done before,” Herrera said.